There are moments when you sense the ground shifting under your feet, a new
order emerging. We've just experienced such a tremor right here in Kansas.
The Sebelius administration's earthshaking decision to deny permits for two
coal-fired plants near Holcomb signals a growing national consensus that climate
change is serious and real and that government must take action to address it.
In truth, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius is no risk taker. The permit decision by the
Kansas Department of Health and Environment reflects the extent to which climate
change and green energy have gone mainstream in the past year.
If anything, the climate science has become more settled and troubling since Al
Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth."
California's wildfires, and many other mega-fires scorching the West, are being
blamed at least in part on climate change.
Scientists this week warned that carbon dioxide is building up in the atmosphere
35 percent faster than previously reported. Arctic ice is melting and glaciers
are receding at a pace that shocks scientists.
Every week brings signs that we're entering a brave new climate, that our world
will be a different place for our children and grandchildren.
And every day brings signs that our economy is moving, with gathering momentum,
toward a post-carbon future.
Business as usual won't cut it.
Energy companies know that a federal carbon tax of some sort is coming down the
pike in the next few years. It's inevitable.
Despite these game-changers, the post-Holcomb spin on both sides this week
sounded like politics as usual.
Some conservative Republicans reacted with predictable bluster and outrage.
House Speaker Melvin Neufeld, R-Ingalls, told business leaders in Wichita that
Sebelius was just playing politics, angling for a job in the next presidential
administration. Others tagged her as a "flip-flopper."
State Sen. Phil Journey, R-Haysville, even suggested that KDHE could be
abolished.
Maybe if they hold their breath, climate change will go away, too?
True, Sebelius flip-flopped. She was for the Holcomb plant before she was
against it. But she also showed the political smarts to change her mind when the
climate debate and regulatory winds shifted.
And she made Kansas an environmental leader, for a change.
On the other hand, big coal has been taking some lumps that perhaps it doesn't
deserve.
Expensive full-page ads appeared in The Eagle and elsewhere prior to the
decision -- and afterward -- imploring Kansans to reject coal power.
Turns out it's not Greenpeace running the slick ads but Chesapeake Energy, a
natural gas company based in Oklahoma. Its motives are not pure.
Natural gas is, of course, a natural winner if coal gets shoved to the
sidelines. It's also more expensive than coal.
Steve Miller, a spokesman for Sunflower Electric Power Corp., the company
proposing the Holcomb plants, pulled out all the emotional stops in responding
to the ad attack: "We're like a wounded deer laying in the middle of the highway
now," he told the Lawrence Journal-World. "So you can imagine everyone who wants
to finish us off is throwing money in the pot right now."
Somehow I never thought of a massive coal-fired power complex as a wounded deer.
Or even an endangered species.
If so, this wounded deer has a truckload of highly paid lawyers in its corner.
I'm betting Bambi will survive.
Still, even some Kansas environmental groups expressed concern with the
take-no-prisoners rhetoric.
"We should be in a bridge-building mode and not continue to fight," said Dan
Nagengast of the Kansas Rural Center, a coal-fired opponent.
In truth, Sebelius' Holcomb decision might have been the easy part. Now she
needs to show the leadership to bring people together on energy.
Sebelius still needs to lay out a clear blueprint for Kansas' renewable future.
Without new coal plants, how do we meet the growing demand for electricity?
She needs to spell out how western Kansas could still reap economic benefits
from wind power.
Moreover, Kansas will rely on existing coal plants for years to come. One
pressing problem is how to retrofit these plants to reduce their carbon output.
And how will the governor persuade Kansans to embrace energy conservation?
Kansas faces huge challenges in meeting these energy and environmental goals.
Instead of bickering, Kansas leaders need to put their heads together and get to
work.
Politics as usual won't cut it.